Autumn Silhouette | ft. Stampin; Up "Lovely as a Tree"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today, I wanted to share a second card that was made for my Grandfather's birthday. My aunt lives very far away and can't be here for a lot of our family gatherings, so she asks me to create a card for the occasion.

We know it would be simple enough for her to find a card and mail it, but I think it's special (and super supportive) for her to still want a handmade card that the recipient can open during their dinner. He even asked where she was.

To begin, I prepped a piece of 110lb white cardstock with my powder tool and stamped this treeline image from Stampin' Up "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set with VersaMark ink. I then heat embossed it with copper embossing powder from Recollections.

Once that cooled, I sponged Hickory Smoke Distress Ink very lightly over the whole panel, then went over the grassy area with Shabby Shutters and over the sky with Faded Jeans. Once that was dry, the colours were too bright for the look I was going for, so I did one more pass with the Hickory Smoke.

The greeting is stamped from CTMH's "Belated Birthday" using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I mounted that piece to a piece of Kraft cardstock then adhered the whole thing to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Crafting with an Attitude Challenge

Anything Goes

Crafting from the Heart

Challenge #178

Layered Floral Birthday | ft. CTMH " Beloved Bouquet"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

First off, I just want to thank you all so much for the support. The responses to the Distress Showdown I posted yesterday have been overwhelming. I cannot tell you how much each click and like and view mean to me. You guys are awesome.

Today I thought I would do something a little different. It's a relatively new (to me) technique that has been gaining popularity in the crafting circles. Layered stamping. I'm always surprised at how lovely these turn out, which is silly because they work exactly the way they are designed to.

To begin, using the MISTI, I stamped the solid flower from Close to my Heart's "Beloved Bouquet" Tulip ink. To get full coverage, I stamped this a couple times. This is where the MISTI becomes invaluable. I can't line up a clear stamp to save my life, so the MISTI has become one of my most used tools in the craft room.

Next I stamped the detailed flower over top in CTMH Barn Red ink. Then I masked the flower. I stamped the solid leaves using Pear ink, then stamped the detailed leaves using New England Ivy. Once everything was dry, I removed the mask.

I stamped the Birthday greeting from Stampendous "Happy Messages" using Golden Glitz Delicata ink and again let everything dry.

Then I drew a frame using an ultra-fine Sharpie. For the dots I used Opal White Liquid Pearls by Ranger. As you can see, I need some more practice with these. I found them to be thick and they kind of had a mind of their own. They didn't really want to do what I wanted to do, but I was very happy with the card thus far, so I went with it.

Once the panel was completely dry, I adhered it directly to a standard A2 sized card base.

On a side note, I cannot stress enough the importance of letting this dry between each step. Use your heat tool if you have to, but you don't want to add a layer of water-based ink on top of a layer of water-based ink that has not dried. It will run and it will wick out, and if that is the look you are going for - fantastic. It wasn't the look I was going for, and I had to learn that lesson the hard way.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Crafting from the Heart

Challenge #174 Anything Goes

Crafting with an Attitude

Challenge #31